Relative Dimension 02: The Fear Game
by MartyCessna
Summary: The Doctor and Cara find themselves stranded on a very strange planet, and confronted with old friends. But all is not as it seems on this world.
1. Chapter 1

"If you couldn't sense the Master, maybe there's still others out there, somewhere, who survived!" Martha Jones had cried.

"No!" the Doctor had practically yelled at her, almost too quickly. He had quieted down, but was no less adamant when he replied, "no, there aren't any others." _Not anymore._

The Doctor glanced at the new person, Cara, sleeping on the TARDIS bench and sighed. Martha hadn't understood the Doctor's apparent lack of faith in his race's ability to survive. She had told him that he needed to be more optimistic, that someone else _had_ to have made it. The Doctor wouldn't tell her his reason. He couldn't. How could he ever explain it without scaring her? It had scared _him_, and he was one who fully understood the nuances. So he hadn't said a word. To anyone. Not even to the TARDIS in the darkest depths of lonely night, when all secrets are known only to the whisper of shadow and play of the light from the central console against the walls.

No, no one knew. No one except the Doctor. And no one would; especially not Cara. Cara…how had she arrived at that name? After all this time, after all the forgotten past, how had that come through? _Perhaps she just looked like a Cara_, the Doctor mused ironically, _for what is it, the seventh time?_

"Don't eat that, that's a doorknob!" Cara muttered in her sleep.

Sleep muttering. That was familiar, too. He wondered what else was the same.

The woman on the bench pulled the Doctor's empty coat tighter around herself. That was the first time he had realized that he wasn't wearing it. Sneaky? That part hadn't changed either. His mind wandered as his feet carried him deeper into the TARDIS in search of a proper blanket for his passenger.

No sooner had he returned, a soft woolly Gomallian quilt in hand, then the TARDIS bumped gently against something. Frowning, the Doctor dropped the quilt unceremoniously on Cara and went to the control console. It almost felt like the TARDIS had landed on something more than bumped into it, but it wasn't the sort of landing he was accustomed to. This was a soft-settling-onto-a-padded-surface sort of landing.

"What was that?" he mumbled to the sentient machine. All that he received in response was a low and quiet creak of settling machinery somewhere far off. And then a "Merrfff!" from someone who sounded like they had just discovered a Gomallian quilt flopped over their head.

"Good morning," the Doctor said cordially, but distractedly, as he attempted to determine where the TARDIS actually was and why it had landed without consulting him first.

"Morning? Is it morning somewhere?" Cara asked disjointedly, pushing the quilt off her face and blinking at him blearily. Her brown eyes roamed the room, seeming at the same time bewildered by and at ease with her surroundings.

"Most likely it is," the Doctor teased, turning to give her a quick grin, "but not here. We seem to have landed somewhere when it's night."

Cara ran a hand through her disheveled hair that stuck out at odd angles. Her hand caught halfway through, so she pulled it out of the tangled locks and stood to join the Doctor at the console. "Where and when would that be, exactly?"

"For some reason, I can't get a clear reading. All I can tell you is that it's Earth, probably around the 1960s." The Doctor shrugged, appearing unbothered by the vagueness of the situation.

"Earth again!" Cara groaned good-naturedly, "you know if I had wanted to _stay_ on this little planet, I would have gotten off at the Chicago World's Fair."

"That was fun, wasn't it?" The Doctor smiled, "well, I can't help it the old girl likes Earth." He patted the console.

"Well," Cara sighed, "what is it this time, do you think? Poisonous volcanoes sprouting in the Arctic? Corrupt government officials eating each others' brains? Someone spilled their tea?"

The Doctor chuckled, "shall we find out?"

Cara strode past him toward the door, "Ladies first!"

Several uncounted hours later, Cara wasn't feeling quite so eager. Day or night, Earth or not; who could tell in the labyrinthine darkness the two Time Lords were currently surrounded by?

"Cheer up, we've been in worse situations," the Doctor gestured to the walls and dripping ceiling of the cave, "for instance, the air isn't burning. There aren't toxic sponge beds beneath our feet. No one is shooting at us."

"True," Cara sighed, "there's nothing to escape from. I'd just feel better if escaping was an option."

"We'll find the TARDIS," the Doctor reassured her, "it's in these caves somewhere."

The two trudged onward in the near-black of the dark cavern tunnel. Their path was faintly lit by phosphorescent green lichen growing in intricate, delicate patterns on the walls.

The Doctor's timeship had materialized inside the caverns, deep underground. Thinking that the lichen was perhaps a form of art or written language from an alien life form, the Doctor and Cara had followed it deeper and deeper into the caves. Now, the Doctor insisted that they were going the right direction to get back, but Cara heard a sliver of doubt in his voice. She suspected that they were more lost than either of them was ready to admit.

"It's too bad the TARDIS can't just call to us somehow and let us know where it is," Cara remarked, kicking at a loose stone.

"Doctor? Doctor?" called a voice.

Cara blinked and turned to the Doctor, "Uh…"

The Doctor turned to share a surprised expression with her for a moment before sending her a questioning grin. Cara shrugged and the two dashed toward the sound of the voice. Perhaps the TARDIS couldn't talk, but obviously someone in this cave could, and finding out who that was seemed a lot more interesting than being lost.

One more corner and a blue glow joined the green in a reflection that seemed like a vibrant rainbow to Cara. It pulsed faintly, growing brighter and brighter until at last, the familiar blue box stood in the path.

"TARDIS!" Cara cried happily.

"What?" the Doctor cried in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

A tall, humanoid figure stood silhouetted against the TARDIS, the blue from the ship and the green from the walls playing on his features.

"You didn't come to rescue me?" the man asked in a half-joking voice.

The Doctor shook his head, "No, the TARDIS just landed…"

But the other man had already shifted his attention, "New companion?" He moved toward Cara, "Hello, I'm Captain Jack Harkness. Who might you be?" His shadowed features smiled.

"Jaack," the Doctor said warningly.

"I know, I know, hands off," Captain Jack teased, raising his arms in mock surrender, "doesn't mean I can't introduce myself."

"I'm Cara," Cara giggled, extending her hand for a handshake.

"You have a beautiful voice, Cara," Jack said softly, taking her hand and kissing it, "you're American?"

"Eh," Cara tilted her head, "Gallifreyan, actually."

"Gallif…" Jack dropped her hand and spun back to the Doctor, "Uhh. Heh." He looked very uncomfortable all of the sudden, "Another one? I thought you said there weren't any more." He glanced accusingly at the Doctor.

The Doctor spread his arms, "I can't be wrong once?"

"Twice," Jack reminded him, turning back around to look Cara over again, "apparently. Though I've got to say, this one's a lot better looking than the last one."

"The…last one?" Cara raised an eyebrow at the Doctor.

"Long story," the Doctor looked uncomfortable now.

"Way too long," Jack took over, "see, the Doctor and I were at the end of the universe and ran into another Time Lord, surprise surprise, they're not all gone. Turns out this guy was the M…"

"An old nemesis of mine," the Doctor cut in, finishing quickly, "he came and tried to take over the world and destroy the universe and his wife killed him end of story."

Jack paused, then nodded, eyes shifting sideways to the Doctor, "Right."

"That wasn't all that long of a story," Cara narrowed her eyes.

"That was the condensed version," the Doctor admitted, "the rest would bore you…why don't you get in and get the TARDIS warmed up and we'll be off?"

Cara, both eyebrows raised, shrugged and walked past the two guys, "You're the Doc, Doc." She smiled at him and went inside the blue box.

As soon as she was gone, Jack moved quickly to the Doctor, "Okay, I don't get it. Why doesn't she know about the Master?"

"It's a lot to throw at her all at once," the Doctor exclaimed, "She was raised as a human. She's just now finding out that she's a Time Lord. The last thing I want is to overwhelm her with information."

"She _is_ a Time Lord then," Jack replied. When the Doctor nodded, Jack shook his head, "she'll find out sooner or later if she's curious enough."

"I'm hoping for 'later' on this one," the Doctor sighed.

"Why, what would happen?" Jack challenged.

"Things."

"What kinds of things?"

"Bad ones."

"I gathered that much," Jack frowned.

"Look," the Doctor stared hard into Jack's eyes, "she can't know. Not yet. Not when she's in such a vulnerable state. There are things in her past that she doesn't remember, and there's a reason for that. If she found out now, it could destroy her, or…" The Doctor trailed off, his eyes still on Jack, but focused on some terrifying point in memory.

Seeing this expression on the Doctor's face, Jack backed away slowly, "Okay, she won't hear it from me." He glanced toward the TARDIS, "she…isn't another 'Master' is she?"

"No." the Doctor replied quietly.

"Good," Jack grinned, "cause I like her."


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor and Jack came through the TARDIS door to find Cara staring at the control console in consternation.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked.

Cara frowned, "The TARDIS won't go."

The Doctor sighed and moved to see what she'd been doing. Then he, too, frowned, "You're right, she won't."

"I guess I didn't tell you why I needed rescuing," Jack said from behind them. He lounged comfortably on the bench, "as far as I can tell, we're all stuck here."

"We're stuck in the caves?" Cara groaned.

"Didn't like them, huh?" Jack asked tauntingly, "that's okay, they'll change soon. Probably to something even less pleasant."

"Change?" the Doctor stopped fiddling with the TARDIS to give Jack an arm-crossed glare, "I think we'd better hear it all, Jack. If you know what's going on…"

"I don't know much," Jack admitted, "I've been here for a few weeks and all I've been able to figure out is that everything out there can change at any moment. It seems to pick particularly nice vacation spots like caves, dungeons, demon worlds. Anyway. I can't find a way out, and neither can anyone else I've met here."

"There's other people stuck here?" Cara asked.

"Yeah, I've run into a lot, actually," Jack scratched at his head thoughtfully, "all kinds of people and creatures. Most of the ones I met when I found myself here are gone now. People are always vanishing and being replaced with new ones. I was beginning to think they were all part of this illusion until you got here."

Cara was quiet. The Doctor looked baffled, "How did you get here?"

"Uh," Jack looked away, "well, we found this device of unknown origin…"

"Typical Torchwood," the Doctor growled, "messing with things you don't know enough about."

"Where is this device?" Cara asked

"Back at HQ," Jack shrugged, not meeting the Doctor's eyes, "as far as I can tell, it only sent me. I tried sending a distress beacon, but so far, no one's found me. I don't even know what planet we're on."

"The TARDIS said it was 1960s Earth when we landed," Cara replied.

"It probably was," the Doctor muttered.

"Yeah, actually," Jack smiled deliberately at Cara, "that was what it looked like, anyway, just before the caves. Seemed kind of strange coming on the heels of the apocalypse."

The Doctor had turned back to the console, "the TARDIS must have picked up that beacon you sent. That must be a strong signal, what've you got powering that thing? Never mind that, what did this 'unknown device' look like?"

Cara scrutinized the TARDIS controls, "I think that we need to focus on the unknown device that's keeping the TARDIS here. We might need to do some exploring."

"Bad idea," Jack exclaimed quickly, "in the weeks I've been here, I've been killed at least a dozen times, maybe more. And while it's not permanent for me, you guys might run out of second chances pretty quick."

Cara blinked, "one moment, I'm an ancient being with multiple lifetimes ahead, the next, I'm a mere mortal again."

"How many lifetimes?" Jack asked curiously.

Cara sniffed, "a lady never reveals her age."

"Well," the Doctor winced at the TARDIS controls, "I can't find any clues from in here. Looks like we'll just have to take our chances."

Jack's brow furrowed, "don't say I didn't warn you."

Cara grinned and was out the door before anyone else could speak.

"Yep," Jack nodded to the Doctor, "she's definitely a Time Lord."


	3. Chapter 3

The wind whipped across the plain, tearing branches off the already sparse brush growing in sad little clumps in the dry dust. Cara had to admit that if this was all some illusion, it was a very good one.

She stood between the two men, aware of Jack edging ever closer to her every time he moved. Rolling her eyes, she stepped forward faster as she led them into the wind. She stopped when she noticed something.

"Captain Harkness, stop staring at my butt."

"I wasn't…"

"You weren't staring at my hair."

"Perceptive," Jack mumbled.

Cara rolled her eyes again, "Experienced."

The Doctor chuckled.

"You weren't staring at my hair, either, Doctor," Cara chided. Then she pointed, "I think there's something up ahead."

In the distance, a small black dot had appeared on a small rise of hills. At first glance, it could have been a building. At second glance, however, the dot was clearly moving toward the trio at alarming speed.

"Oh, here we go," Jack groaned, "I hope you've got more than that little sonic thing up your sleeve, Doctor."

The Doctor's eyes were on the dot on the horizon. The one dot had become three large blobs. They were creatures of some kind, their fur and scales glistening in the uncomfortably hot sun. They were round and compact, like speeding bundles of muscle. Soon they were close enough that spikes could be seen, seemingly stuck all over them at random.

"Krillan razor beasts," Jack said, "at least, that's what one guy yelled last time I saw one of these things. That is, shortly before he was skewered and eaten alive."

"They're not very big," the Doctor remarked in surprise.

"I beg to differ, the one I met was…" Jack looked again. His mouth dropped open, "Uh, maybe these are young ones?"

The three creatures were almost to the three travelers, and were barely the size of lap dogs.

"They looked bigger farther away," Cara remarked, blinking as if trying to readjust her eyes.

"Don't underestimate them," the Doctor seemed poised for battle, "they can move quicker than we can, so it would be no use to run."

"You're gonna fight these things?" Jack gasped, "with what?"

"With this," The Doctor grinned and took out his sonic screwdriver, holding it at the ready.

Cara sensed that he really didn't have a plan. Her hearts beat wildly as she watched the three animals crest the final hill between them at a dead run. She glanced back toward the TARDIS, itself now a dot on the horizon. Too far away to hide in. She realized with a start that she was glad. She didn't want to hide. She _wanted_ to fight these things! She, too, took up a defensive posture.

Jack looked at both of them as if they were crazy. Then he stopped, decided that they probably were, and crouched slightly. He seemed ready to fight while simultaneously bracing himself for impact.

An impact that never came.

The creatures vanished.

So did the plain, the sun, and to the Doctor's horror, the TARDIS.

The three travelers were now standing in a clearing. All that stood where the TARDIS had been were trees. In fact, the entire area was filled with huge, gnarled, leafless trees stretching on and on in shadowy black mists. Somewhere, a night creature screamed at the silver moonlight.

Jack stood up, "lovely place."

"The Garden of Ingmar?" Cara gasped, "I think…I've been here before."

The Doctor turned his anguished gaze away from his missing ship and focused his attention on Cara, "Are you sure?"

Cara raised her eyebrows as she looked around them, "Yes, I definitely remember this place. We stopped here once. My companion and I…" her expression dropped, "he vanished into the forest. Taken by something. I searched alone for days. I would have stayed longer if I could have, but the TARDIS was dying and…and Benji was…"

"Gone," the Doctor finished quietly.

Cara nodded, looking suddenly tired, and stared at the ground.

Jack squinted at the trees, "I think there's something in there."

"There is," Cara raised her head, her eyes haunted, "It's coming."

The Doctor walked up to her and put an arm around her comfortingly, ignoring Jack's questioning expression.

"Whatever it is," the Doctor spoke softly, "we'll face it together. You aren't alone this time." He dropped his arm and took her left hand, "What's this?" he was startled to find a ring on her middle finger. A ring he hadn't noticed before. He held up her hand to inspect the ring.

Cara looked at the ring as if for the first time, "I don't know. Something I found, I think." She turned her hand, the glossy silver metal gleaming in the eerie moonlight. The metal had been cast in a twist design that formed a smooth, stylized figure eight that seemed to be wrapped around her finger. One side of the ring reflected Cara's face back at her. The other side would have mirrored the Doctor's widening eyes if it hadn't been marred by a scrape in the metal.

"What's wrong with it?" Cara asked, seeing the Doctor's face.

"I think it's…" he began hurriedly, ending with an unconvincing, "nothing."

"Good," Jack's attention was elsewhere, "then can we focus on the 'something' in that forest?"

"We can't go in there!" Cara pulled away from the Doctor, looking horrified.

"Why not?" Jack picked up a large stick or a small log, "it's better than waiting for whatever it is to come find _us_."

"Well," Cara gulped, "this can't really be the Garden of Ingmar, because that place didn't change at all."

"An excellent point," the Doctor glanced around.

Cara bent to touch the charcoal dirt, "What if, somehow, all of this is memories from our minds?"

"How?" Jack asked, "I've never been here, and we can all see it. You _are _both seeing a misty haunted forest, right?"

"That's what I see," the Doctor left the clearing and entered the mist. Jack wasn't far behind. Cara stood alone, watching them begin to vanish into the darkness. Swallowing her fear, she went in after them.


	4. Chapter 4

Walking behind the Doctor, Cara felt much less afraid. She was grateful for the way that he took the lead, striding confidently forward as if he had the knowledge that they would all make it out of this just fine. She knew enough to know that the Doctor didn't have this knowledge, but it made her feel better all the same. Even Jack, who had taken to stomping through the brush to the left side of her, made her feel safer. She would have to remember to ask about the comment he'd made earlier about not staying dead permanently.

The Doctor's abrupt halt nearly caused a Time Lord collision. The Doctor held up his hand as Cara stopped just short of plowing into his back.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"What?" Cara strained to hear.

"Sounded like…" the Doctor began.

"Footsteps!" Jack finished.

Now Cara could hear it, too; the rustle of underbrush sounded like a whisper from the woods to her right. It was a swish, swish sound, two beat, repeating distinctly, never varying.

"Bipedal," the Doctor assessed, "probably not very heavy."

"Not heavy at all," Jack affirmed, "look!" He pointed to the brush that was making the rustling. It seemed to part of its own accord, moved by invisible hands and feet.

"What?" the Doctor yelped.

Cara stood completely frozen.

The black mist that had hung shroudlike over the woods now swirled and condensed, forming a twisting pillar where the brush moved. Finally, it settled, forming the phantomlike figure of a man walking directly toward Cara. He stopped three meters from her, clothed in black robes, his empty dark gaze incongruous with what might otherwise have been a handsome face.

"What are you?" the Doctor called, but the figure just stood, hands folded in front of him, staring blankly at Cara.

"It's Benji," Cara breathed, her eyes filled with horror and sadness, "or, it's taken his form, anyway."

The Doctor stepped closer to her, "it has to be from your memories then. It's not responding to me. Try talking to it."

"Talking?" Cara stared at the expressionless figure, "um, hi?"

The figure did not give any indication that it had heard.

"Benji?" Cara's voice shook, "or whatever you are? What…"

The figure suddenly interrupted with words that were a voiceless echo, "You deserted me." He didn't seem accusing, but spoke as if he merely stated a fact.

"I'm sorry," Cara cried, "I ran out of time!"

The figure's eyes became twin abysses, "You claimed to be a lord of time. You showed me wonders. You showed me powers and ethics. You used none of these. You left me when it mattered most. You left me to die."

"I tried to find you! I tried!" Cara screamed.

"Cara!" The Doctor took her arm, "he's just a memory!"

Cara's breath slowed somewhat, but she still glared helplessly at the figure.

"I loved you," the Benji-ghost said without feeling.

"I don't remember _that_!" Cara cried to the Doctor.

Benjighost pointed, somehow in every direction, with one finger, "I loved you and you never noticed. You hurt me, and now I'll hurt you." The mist swirled back into a pillar and sank into the ground.

"Don't listen to him, Cara," the Doctor leaned down to her, "if it could hurt us, it would have already. There's no reason for it to wait this long."

"Except to scare us," Jack pointed out.

The Doctor scoffed, "would take more than some simple cloud tricks to scare _us_."

Cara looked plenty scared, but nodded.

"Really," Jack yelled at the forest, "is that all you've got?"

The forest was silent.

"See?" Jack grinned, "nothing to…"

He didn't finish his sentence because as he talked, pillars of mist rose all around the trio. Jack reacted, slashing at one with the large stick he still held. The pillar divided and came back together, forming the vague figure of a faceless man. The other pillars did the same.

Cara turned to the Doctor, "Might I suggest we try running this time?"

The Doctor eyed the figures, "We can try it, sure."

All three non-misty people turned and fled in unison. All of the mist people pursued, also in unison. Dry branches crackled like lightning under the feet of Jack, Cara, and the Doctor as they ran.

Cara was startled to notice black wisps of smoke curling like tendrils as they reached past her. The smoke brushed her legs, icy cold, and in that moment, she knew it was more than an apparition. The tendrils slipped past her, through her churning legs, under her feet, not affected by her at all. They reached instead for the Doctor.

"Doctor, look out!" Cara cried as the blackness overtook her. She lost sight of the Doctor, Jack, and even the forest as she was engulfed in the cloud. The air buzzed with something akin to electricity, prickling her skin and teasing her hair. Her head spun as she struggled to remain upright, still running. She was confused and frightened and wanted nothing more than to escape. _Go, go, faster, get out!_

Then suddenly, it was over. The cloud whisked itself away into the woods, and all was quiet except the sound of her breathing. She realized that at some point, she must have stopped running, because her feet were no longer moving. She also realized that she must have closed her eyes, because when she opened them, all that she saw was the empty woods and Jack. The man stood with a dumbfounded expression on his face, staring at something beyond her. Cara turned to see what he was staring at, and came face-to-face with the expressionless phantom-like figure of the Doctor.

Cara had never understood the expression "heart caught in throat" until she experienced it just then, double time. She stared, again frozen, into the black, empty eyes, and refused to believe.

The phantom figure said nothing. It didn't move. It simply started to fade into nothingness.

"NO!" Cara screamed, launching herself at it. She landed on nothing but air, caught by nothing but ground. She wasn't aware of Jack running to help her up until she rolled to her feet and threw herself at the woods again. He stood in her way and caught her, and she was close enough to hear his own single heart beating fast. She slammed her fist into his chest and pulled away to stare numbly at the woods around her.

"Again. It happened again," she mumbled.

Jack said nothing for a moment, rubbing his chest and looking at the empty woods.

"He can't be gone." Cara started to shake, "he…I can't feel him. At all. Alone. I'm alone again."

Keeping his distance this time, Jack moved toward her, "I'm still here. Cara. You're not going to be alone. They can't do anything to me."

"Yes," Cara mumbled, but Jack couldn't tell if she was agreeing with him, disagreeing, or talking about something else entirely. She stopped shaking and straightened her shirt. As if she had shoved all of her grief into a locked drawer, she suddenly turned and looked at him, the sadness gone from her eyes. Replaced by something far more powerful; anger.


	5. Chapter 5

The surrounding area exploded into fires, somehow leaving a path straight between flames. Cara strode briskly down the path as if she knew exactly where it led. That, or she didn't care. She didn't give a backward glance as Jack followed.

Smoke filled the air, though there didn't seem to be anything to burn. The path was ashes, too fine to even sustain a stray ember. An uncontrollable blaze spread everywhere for miles. And straight through it strode a twice-scorned female Time Lord.

Jack wasn't sure which worried him more.

Images flickered in the red-orange glow as the flames roared and popped. _The Doctor's gone. The Doctor's gone. Gone. Gone. _That couldn't be right. The Doctor always came back. Shut up, flames!

So they did. In their place, snow appeared.

"What happened?" Cara demanded, whirling.

Jack gazed squinting at the sudden whiteness, "I think Hell just froze over."

"No," Cara paused, "that's not what I meant. I meant that feeling like the air came unhinged."

Jack looked at her, "What does that even mean?"

Cara shook her head, "I don't know yet. Does that happen every time?"

Without waiting for an answer, she began climbing a mountain of glass that the snowy whiteness had suddenly changed to. The sky was sickly green and undulating like a misplaced sea. Shards of glass sliced into their palms as Cara and Jack climbed on through the ever-changing landscape.

Cara was quiet, muttering things once in a while like, "it feels contained," and "that time, a curtain fell."

The scenery became an endless ocean of flat lavender, then a shark-infested reef. Then a beach covered in meter-long scorpion crabs. Cara and Jack made it through it all, fighting and swimming and running. Cara seemed unemotional and preoccupied, even as they fought for their lives. She finally stopped mid-stomp and turned her back to the scorpion crab she was wrestling.

"Jack," Cara asked, "how come you haven't died?"

"Because I really hate crabs?" Jack called back breathlessly, landing a devastating blow on one's shell with his stick.

"No," Cara walked toward him, "I mean since we've met. You claimed you died many times here before, but ever since I got here, you haven't died once."

"Just lucky." Jack hit away one crab like a baseball.

"More than lucky," Cara grimaced as the crabs were replaced by lightning strikes, "And we haven't encountered any other people here, either." She and Jack dodged the strikes and took refuge in a shallow cave. The cave became the open maw of a giant bear-like creature. The two exited and Jack started to run, but Cara didn't.

"Doesn't this place seem a little too well-timed to you?" Cara asked, "as if these are all tests?" She held her ground as the growling bear advanced.

"Cara!" Jack cried, "What are you doing? Run!"

"Not this time," Cara shook her head, "I'm tired of running. Tired of being afraid. Whatever is going on _has to stop_. It ends here. Now." She turned to the looming bear, challenging it, "I'm not afraid of you. What are you going to do about that?"

"I took your friend," the bear boomed, "gobbled him up. Showed you what was left."

"You showed me what you knew would frighten me," Cara spoke loudly and clearly, "but after that, you ran out of ideas. Nothing you did could scare me as much as what you had already done."

The bear charged past Cara, turning into a long, whiplike vice dragon. Jack cried out as its mouth closed over him. The dragon swallowed, "How's that? Now you're alone, and you will be for the rest of your life."

"I doubt that," Cara spat, "besides, Jack wasn't real anyway, was he? He was part of the illusion, too. Sent to mislead the Doctor and I."

The dragon began to change form again, shrinking until it resembled a human man, but nobody that Cara recognized. The man spoke, "Yes, Captain Harkness was an illusion to you, though he really did come here. We have him now, using his memory and thought patterns to create a believable 'illusion' as you call our projections. Because he recognized your spaceship, we thought he could manipulate you and your friend more easily than we could. However, he did not…cooperate. Many times, he regained control of his projection and _helped_ you."

Cara shook her head, "Why? Why scare me?"

The man stared at her, "my species requires fear to sustain its metabolism. When we found the gateway to dimensions on this world, we discovered that we could manipulate it using memories to form places that many species found terrifying. It was a simple task to bring them here and harvest their fear."

"No," Cara shook her head, "why _me_ in particular? You had the Doctor, but you kept me in this little game of yours."

"The Doctor didn't scare easily," the man said, looking slightly embarrassed, "but you have a great capacity for fear when he is not around. We decided to concentrate our efforts on you."

"Flattered," Cara spat.

"We underestimated the strength of your fury," the man reached for Cara's face and she swatted him away. He frowned, "yes, I suppose you are no longer any good to us."


	6. Chapter 6

The man flickered like a bad television set. Then the entire scene flickered in the same way, finally collapsing. Cara found herself standing in a metal room. Two other people were lying sprawled on the floor next to her. She recognized them immediately.

Jack and the Doctor.

She went to the Doctor and picked up his hand. Breathing a sigh of relief, she started to go to see if Jack was still alive. He woke up gasping, however, before she could get there. The man sat up and blinked at her, then smiled.

"You look familiar," he said.

Cara gave him a half smile before turning back to the Doctor.

"How is he?" asked Jack.

"Asleep," Cara said softly, "he's fine."

"Lucky him," Jack groaned, "I don't know about you, but I have one massive headache."

Cara looked at Jack's face more closely and saw red marks where presumably, there had been probes attached. She shrugged, "that's not surprising."

"So what do we do now?" Jack asked, rubbing his temples and sitting against the wall. He glanced around at the completely enclosed room as if looking for a way out.

"You're asking me?" Cara coughed with surprise.

"Yeah," Jack nodded, "you're the one with hundreds of years of cosmic knowledge."

Cara absently stroked the Doctor's head, running her fingers through his hair as she thought, "well, it felt like used a particle stream transport device to get us in here. In which case, this room probably doesn't have any doors."

"Oh, great," Jack moaned.

"However," Cara bit her lip. She went to the wall and pressed her ear to it. Moving around the room, she did the same to all of the walls and the floor. "Just as I suspected." Then she returned to the Doctor and dug around in his coat. She pulled out his sonic screwdriver, "Aha!"

"Should you be taking that?" Jack watched.

"Probably not," Cara admitted, looking at the device, "but we can't wait around for him to wake up so that I can ask permission. She pointed the device at the wall opposite Jack and activated it. The screwdriver buzzed, but nothing seemed to happen.

"Do you know how to use it?" Jack asked doubtfully.

Cara just smiled strangely and held the device steady. Gradually, the wall started to blacken. Blue arcs of energy shot out from it and scored the other walls in the room. Jack rolled out of the way of one of them barely in time

"Watch it!" he yelped.

All of the lights went out, but it was not dark for long before the entire wall exploded, leaving a giant, gaping, ragged hole. Jack and Cara coughed until the smoke and debris cleared. The blast had exposed what was left of a generator of some kind, and beyond it, a dark tunnel that appeared to lead to a more promising-looking room.

"What was that?" cried the voice of someone who had just been awakened by a generator overload.

"Doctor!" Cara and Jack cried at the same time.

The Doctor stood up and looked at the explosion site, his gaze moving over Cara and Jack. He walked to Cara, "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Jack replied sarcastically, "thanks for asking."

"I'm fine," Cara gazed into the Doctor's eyes.

"Good," the Doctor held out his hand, "now may I have my sonic screwdriver back?"

Cara smiled and handed it back to him, turning to gesture to the hole in the wall, "Shall we?"

As they climbed through the hole, Cara realized what it was that had been nagging at the back of her mind.

"So, Jack, how did you get to be a fixed point in time?" she asked casually.

"I died," Jack replied, equally casual, "one of the Doctor's companions brought me back to life. So far back that now I can never die."

"I bet that comes in handy," Cara remarked.

"Sometimes," Jack nodded.

The trio found themselves in a room that seemed deserted and dusty. What light there was came from low-set dirty fluorescent tubes and three tiny windows in one wall. The Doctor peered through one window, "We're not on the planet anymore."

"We're in orbit," Cara confirmed, looking through another window, "this must be their ship, the people who trapped us here." She could see stars outside, and below was a vast globe divided in colored sections like a quilt. Several of the sections shifted, causing a ripple of different colors across the sphere.

Cara shook her head, "An entire planet smack-dab in the middle of an inter-dimensional rift. So much more beautiful from up here." She then pulled back and surveyed the room. It contained several large crates, rolls of cable, and what might be an inset door.

Jack noticed the door and ran to it. He pushed and pulled against it, but it didn't budge, "Locked."

"I blew out a generator," Cara frowned in thought, "we might not be in an important part of this ship, but there should still be alarms. Guards. Something."  
"Unless," the Doctor reasoned, "the ship was abandoned and the alarms switched off."

"Or this is still an illusion," Jack glared at the door.

Cara yelled at the ceiling, "I told you people that I wasn't going to be intimidated anymore!"

"It's cold in here," Jack observed.

The Doctor nodded, "Illusion or not, I think the life support systems aren't working in this room. We'd better find a way out." He went to the door and started feeling around the frame, knocking once in a while.

"Or go back," Cara shuddered.

Finding a spot that echoed differently, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. The door, however, slid open all on its own, as if it was a delayed reaction.

"Bad wiring, maybe," the Doctor reasoned, "come on!" He went through. Then Jack. Cara ran from across the room just as the door started sliding shut.

"Cara!" the Doctor cried as she ran toward it. She reached the door just in time for it to slam shut in her face.

"Arrrgh!" she yelled, hitting the door. To her surprise, her fist left a tiny dent. Her eyes shifted to one of the crates.

On the other side of the door, the Doctor was already working on the controls with the screwdriver. Jack paced behind him.

"It's jammed," the Doctor scowled at the door, "I can't get it open!" He stared at the controls as if tempted to smash them, "not before she's out of air and frozen, anyway."

The door started to make loud banging sounds.  
"Sounds like she's not ready to give up," Jack mused, watching the door rattle with each bang.

"Come on, Cara!" the Doctor said with renewed hope.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Silence.

Bang! Bang!

Silence.

Bang!

Silence.

Thump! Thump. Thud.

Silence.

Nothing more.

"No!" the Doctor yelled.


	7. Chapter 7

"There has to be something we could do!" Jack cried, "we can't just let her die in there!"

"I know!" the Doctor snapped, "I'm thinking!"

Jack tried to push against one of the crates, "Maybe we could break through to her!" The Doctor joined him, but the crate didn't budge.

"What is IN this thing, anyway?" Jack complained.

"It's no use," the Doctor read the label on the crate, "solid veranium alloy. It would take ten of us to even begin to move any of these crates."

Jack sat defeatedly on the crate and watched as the Doctor returned to the door. The Time Lord adjusted his screwdriver and hurriedly returned to working on the controls.

"You love her, don't you?" Jack asked softly.

"What?" the Doctor asked, distractedly.

"It's okay," Jack shrugged, "I understand. You've got the whole Adam and Eve thing going on. I mean, she's got more in common with you than anyone else has for a long time."

"She's my responsibility," the Doctor explained.

"I don't think _she'd _see it that way," Jack pointed out.

The Doctor didn't take his eyes off the controls, "I was the one who told her she was a Time Lord. I exposed her to a lot of dangers that she wasn't even aware of."

"So why did you tell her, then?"

The Doctor frowned, "she was trying to save the world and it was overloading her human mind. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"You saved her," Jack told him.

"I cursed her," the Doctor sighed, "She can never really be at peace with herself again. She's homeless, worldless. She has nothing. And now she's dying with nothing."

"She has you," Jack said.

The Doctor was quiet for a moment before nodding slowly, "Yes, she really has."

At that moment, the wall bent inward with a bang. Then again, it banged and bent further. The Doctor leapt out of the way as a crate came crashing through the wall, with Cara riding astride it. She whooped, cowboy style, and grinned.

The Doctor blinked, stunned momentarily, "Is it possible for you to leave a room without making a hole in the wall?"

"The wall was made from weaker metal than the door," Cara explained, swinging her leg over the crate and standing.

"Brilliant!" The Doctor went to her and hugged her, "but you're freezing."

"I'll be okay," she smiled, hugging him back, "but let's try not to get split up again, shall we?"

"That doesn't seem to be a problem," Jack observed, gesturing to the room. It was filled with piles of dusty equipment. There were also windows to space. On the three walls not facing the door. There was noplace to go.

"Not a ship," the Doctor realized, "a cargo barge. A small one." He ran around, looking through all of the windows, "no propulsion systems. Minimal life support. Probably for transporting livestock and supplies to colony worlds."

"Look there," Jack pointed out a window, "looks like battle damage."

Cara shook her head, "does anyone but me think that this simulation is radically different from the others?"

"This one might be real," the Doctor nodded.

"They did say," Cara remembered, "that they had no further use for me when I said I'd stop playing their game."

The Doctor sighed, "we don't have a choice now but to play along."

"We could be playing for keeps this time," Jack agreed.

"And if life support really is failing," the Doctor told Jack, "_you_ could be stuck here for a very long time. Alone."


	8. Chapter 8

Thump.

Cara blinked her eyes. She sat up, annoyed at being awoken from a restful sleep. On either side of her, the two men stirred. They had all clustered together for warmth in what passed for orbital night.

Thump.

Cara stood and went to a window.

Thump bang.

She saw the sharply pitted rock, about the size of her foot, bounce off the hull and knew they were in for some trouble.

"Doctor, meteors!" she exclaimed, catching sight of an expansive field of them ahead of the ship.

It was only a moment later that multiple stones struck the hull, rocking the ship in an endless barrage.

Both men were up in an instant and at her side.

"Aw, we don't stand a chance against that!" Jack groaned, seeing the ever-larger rocks headed for them at alarming speed.

"Orbital debris," the Doctor said, grabbing hold of a bar below the window as another stone bounced off the barge, "should have guessed we'd encounter it."

Cara lost her balance and hit the floor, rolling. She slammed into the wall on the other side of the room. "Ooof!"

"Are you okay?" Jack moved to help her.

"Why does everyone keep asking that?" Cara demanded, but accepted his help to get to her feet. Just as another large rock slammed into the ship, sending it into a spin. In the moment it took for the barge's gravitational gyros to catch up, all three of the occupants were sent into walls.

"Find something and hold on!" the Doctor called, still clinging to the bar near the window. Jack grabbed a crate with one arm and Cara with the other. The ship suddenly twisted and rolled to an incline. All of the crates started to slide, grinding, across the floor, leaving ugly gashes in the metal. Jack lost his grip on Cara and she tumbled down after the crates.

"Cara!" the Doctor and Jack cried.

"Yes!" Cara yelled at him, "I AM okay!" She had stopped herself with her feet just in time to avoid crashing into one of the crates. "Good thing I wore this nice pair of shoes today."

The Doctor grinned at her and reached toward her with one hand, "Can you get to this window?"

"I can try!" Cara climbed up one crate, carefully, as it slowly scraped down the incline. She reached out with her left hand and almost reached the Doctor's hand. He grabbed at her, holding the window bar with just the tips of his fingers.

"Gotcha!" he said triumphantly.

Boom! The bulkhead dented in as the entire barge rocked violently.

"Gah!" the Doctor tried to hold tightly to Cara's hand, but lost his grip. Her hand slipped from his and she fell, leaving only her silver ring clutched in his fingers. As if in slow motion, her body flew down toward the sharp-edged crates. One of the crates struck the others, sending them punching through the wall. In much the same way that Cara had arrived, she was gone, flying through the hole after the crates.

"Not again!" the Doctor snarled, letting go of the bar and sliding down the floor after the crates.

"Doctor!" Jack exclaimed, "look out!" He let go of the crate and hurled himself toward another crate that was sliding straight for the Doctor. Jack managed to kick it to the side just enough that it missed the Time Lord, but the gyros were completely confused by then and unable to compensate for all of the punishment they were receiving. The sudden loss of gravity sent Jack flying across the room and into the hull, denting it back out. He bounced, but hung suspended in midair, motionless.

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly and stared down into the hole that the crates had made. For the moment, everything had stopped moving. The ship lay tilted at a severe angle, the floor now almost another wall, and the wall full of holes was now the floor. From his vantage point atop one of the crates, the Doctor could peer straight into the largest of the wall holes. Cold, stale air seeped upward as what was left of the ship's command systems tried to compensate for the sudden overtaxing of the life support. It was never designed to provide circulated, warmed air to all three compartments at once.

"Cara!" the Doctor yelled into the hole. There was no response. He turned to glance at the still form of Jack, then looked back into the hole. In frustration, he yelled, "Caraaa!"

A cable floated up through the hole. Pocketing Cara's ring, the Doctor grabbed the cable and started pulling it, hand over hand. It came freely, barely weighing anything in the near-zero gravity. Finally, Cara appeared, holding it, grasping at the wall and pulling herself out of the hole, helping as much as she could.

"Thought I'd drop by and see if we left anything in there," Cara gasped, breathing in deeply, "we didn't." She stood beside the Doctor on the pile of crates and looked around. Spotting Jack, she asked, "Is he…?"

"Unconscious, not dead," the Doctor replied, "or I think he'd be awake already."

"Ah," Cara looked up at the stars through the window, "Well, as meteor showers go, that one wasn't so bad." She smiled a little as though she had made some private joke.

The ship's servos kicked in just then, suddenly tilting the ship upright again. The Doctor and Cara found themselves sprawled in a heap on the floor in full gravity. They looked at each other and giggled in embarrassment, trying to stand up and move away from each other, but failing.

"Am I interrupting something?" Jack asked, groaning as he sat up a few meters away.

Cara and the Doctor finally succeeded in getting untangled and brushed themselves off, muttering dismissively. The Doctor suddenly stopped and ran to the window, straining to see something inside.

"What is it?" Cara asked.

"Not more meteors I hope," Jack rubbed his neck.

"No!" the Doctor turned, a surprising grin on his face, "it's the TARDIS!"

Cara ran to another window. Sure enough, the blue box tumbled freely in space. "How did it get there?" Cara asked.

"Who knows?" Jack replied, "my question is, how can we get to it?"

The Doctor watched with mixed joy and frustration as his ship tumbled slowly past, just out of reach.

"No," he whispered to it, "come back!"

It continued on its way, finally floating past the barge and out of sight.  
The brief viewing of his ship seemed to spur the Doctor into action. He turned and ran across the room, toward the holes in the wall, "Both of you stay here!"

"Where are you going?" Cara cried.

"You'll see, if I'm right!" the Doctor yelled back.

Cara and Jack looked at each other for a brief instant, and as if in silent agreement, dashed off after the Doctor. They ran back the way they had come, through the walls and back into the empty, doorless room they had started off in. The first thing they noticed was that there was a pin-sized meteor hole in the wall where atmosphere was escaping. It was gradually growing larger as the vacuum of space pulled at it. The already thin air was now thinning at an increased rate.

"We haven't got much time," Cara observed, "whatever you've got planned, Doctor, it had better work."

The Doctor was busy pulling what was left of the generator out of the wall. He set to work on it with the sonic screwdriver. "If I'm right, this was part of the teleportation system that brought us here."

"You think you can get it to transport us into the TARDIS?" Jack guessed.

"Possibly," the Doctor motioned toward the hole, "of course, if I'm wrong, we won't have a lot of time to regret it."


	9. Chapter 9

The hole tore open a bit more, now large enough that a shooter marble could easily fit through it. The air found it even easier to slip through.

Cara bent to examine the generator, reattaching several blasted-apart wires, "Looks like I blew out the power source," Cara frowned.

The hole widened.

"We can use something else," the Doctor replied optimistically. He worked as quickly as he could, "Jack?"

Jack looked confused, then suddenly nodded, "Right, the signal." He removed a device on a leather band from around his arm and handed it to the Doctor, "I want this back."

The Doctor nodded and started to attempt to integrate the device into the generator. Sparks flew.

"They're not compatible," Cara cried, right before the generator sputtered and threw flames at the two Time Lords. The Doctor hastily removed the now scorched armband and handed it back to Jack.

Jack held up the tattered leather and sighed, "Thanks."

Cara wiped her sooty face on her sleeve and frowned at the generator. Behind her, the hole in the hull tore further open, now the size of a fist.

"Jack," the Doctor exclaimed, "The fluorescent tubes in the other room. Find out what they're powered with and bring it here!"

"Yes, sir!" Jack leapt into the tunnel on his mission.

Cara sat back against the wall, her eyelids drooping.

"Don't give up," the Doctor said cheerfully, "there's still a chance!"  
Cara didn't reply, only stared at the widening hull breach with dull eyes.

The Doctor paused and flicked off the screwdriver to look at her, "Cara?"

Jack bounded back in, carrying a load of metallic objects, "I think they're batteries of some sort. They look like they might work, but I don't think there's a lot of power left in them. The lights were flickering even before I took these out."

The Doctor's eyes stayed on Cara a second more before he returned to work, this time adding the batteries to the generator's circuitry.

The hole behind them all tore further, causing the wall to creak ominously. Everyone started breathing in short gasps. No one spoke.

The generator sparked, fizzled, died, sparked again, as the Doctor tried to coax it to life. The hole widened, becoming a gash in the side of the barge. In only a few moments, the three people trapped inside were going to become space dust.

"It's…been…great…knowing…you…guys…" Jack gasped, sliding down the wall to sit next to Cara, "I'm…gonna…miss…you…"

"Creaaak. SLAM," said the outer hull. The barge shook violently again.

_This is it, _thought Jack, his eyes tightly closed so he wouldn't have to watch his two friends die.

The Doctor looked up in surprise. He had barely enough air to gasp, "What?"

Jack opened his eyes and echoed the sentiment.

The hull had been punched inward. It wasn't the starry vastness of space beyond it, but a familiar wooden blue box, the windows glowing invitingly.

Jack ran toward it, grabbing it tightly, "It's…really…here!"

The Doctor grinned at Cara, then frowned. He hadn't noticed her lose consciousness! He scooped her up and dashed to the blue doors. The TARDIS swung into view around them as they all fell into it, the warmth and rich air inside a shocking change to the barge. Jack slammed the door shut and the Doctor carefully set Cara down on the bench. Her eyes fluttered open, "I…I…I…" she stammered.

"It's okay," the Doctor smiled, "we're safe now. We're home."

"The TARDIS," Cara tried to sit up, her words spilling out of her, "I thought it should come, and it did. How is that possible? I felt it. But we…Time Lords can't. Shouldn't. Can we?" She fell backward into the Doctor's arms and lay there, staring at the ceiling.

Bump! Went the TARDIS as it was swung around, still stuck to the barge. The momentum of the TARDIS' impact had sent the barge into a fast spin. The Doctor frowned at Cara and reluctantly left her for the console. He took a moment to relish the feel of being back in his ship and at the controls before grabbing at them wildly, attempting to break free of the barge. Jack hung onto one of the TARDIS' support pillars.

Cara felt the tumbling ship and her thoughts tumbled. She saw things, hallucinations, she thought. There were scenes of people dressed in robes, all sitting on a floor in a circle, saying things in an ancient language while a silver sphere bobbled in the air in the middle of the circle. The people looked strangely familiar. One face looked right at her, accusingly, before fading into more scenes of fire and dust and space. Rocks and water. Darkness. A giant rock headed straight toward her. Pain. The sound of rapid merciless gunfire. Then nothing, a flat grey void like a wall.

"Do you love her?" said a voice. It seemed like a piercing blade of light through the nightmares. Cara clung to the voice, realizing it was Jack's, trying to follow it upward, away from the void. For some reason, she knew that she didn't want to see what was in the greyness.

"I cursed her," said another voice. Cara recognized it. It was the Doctor's voice, echoing in time.

"You saved her. She has you."

"Yes, yes she really has. Caraaa!"

_I'm coming! _Cara thought as hard as she could, _I'm trying!_

"Do you love her?" asked Jack's voice again. Then it shifted to a thought, accompanied by bright silver leaves falling in a feathery storm, "do you love him?"

Cara grasped at the leaves, catching them with her mind, and releasing them. They piled at her feet, trapping her. They started falling into her mouth, choking her. She tried to scream, but it came out as a whisper, "Yes."

Strong arms reached down, she sensed them wrapping around her mind, pulling her upward toward light. Around her, the leaves fell away as she rose from the darkness. Up, up, she went, toward warmth. Toward light. She heard heartbeats and wondered if she was passing through her own chest. Then she counted, and there were eight beats. Four hearts beating at once. Pounding. Pulsing her upward.

Her eyes opened.

"There you are," the Doctor smiled down at her, his hands on her temples.

"What was that?" Cara blinked and sat up.

"Easy now," the Doctor brushed a hand through her hair, "careful with that mind of yours. You just put it through a lot."

Cara hadn't missed the deep concern smoldering in his blue eyes before he looked away. She shook her head slowly, "it felt like I was dying again. I think I was reliving my past regenerations. Until I hit something. My sixth life, maybe." Her brow furrowed in thought.

"Try not to think about it," the Doctor patted her back, "don't force the memories. They'll come when they're ready to."

"But the TARDIS," Cara stood and walked around it, "I felt it. I sensed it. I…_moved_ it."

"Telekinesis?" Jack exclaimed.

"Lucky chance," the Doctor quickly replied, "the TARDIS must have been in a curving course and collided with the barge."

"At that exact spot?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"Jack," Cara interrupted, "were you talking while I was…incapacitated?"

"No," Jack shook his head.

"I heard your voice," Cara's eyes looked faraway, "you were asking the Doctor if he loved me. And you," she turned to the Doctor, "you said that you cursed me. It was all very echo-like and strange."

Jack looked stunned, "Way-wait, you weren't there when I asked him that."

The Doctor stood frozen in place, staring hard at Cara as if he didn't want to believe what he was hearing. He shook his head and turned back to the TARDIS console, "Right then, we're off."

"Where to?" Jack inquired.

"Dropping you off on Earth," the Doctor replied, "you're nothing but trouble."

"I wasn't even with you when you landed on that planet!" Jack protested, "and I did help…"

Cara let their banter fade into the background, the Doctor's frightened expression burned into her mind's eye. She moved automatically to help him with the TARDIS controls, plotting a course for Earth in the 21st century. But all the time, she wondered what it was behind the grey curtain. What was it in her past that could scare the Doctor?


	10. Chapter 10

"So, you and I have been through Hell and back," Jack winked at Cara as he shook her hand, "It's been fun."

They had landed on Earth, in Cardiff, exactly where and when they had meant to, as if the TARDIS were apologizing for the previous ordeal. Though it could be that she just wanted the recharge from the rift.

Cara smiled at Jack and nodded, "yeah, it has."

"If you're ever in the neighborhood," Jack held her hand longer than necessary, "look me up. I'll show you some great places you don't need a time machine to get to."

"Come on," the Doctor gave Jack a false glare and put his arm possessively around Cara.

"You, too, Doctor," Jack nodded, "we'll make it a threesome."

"Be careful," the Doctor said by way of reply, "I don't want to be rescuing you from another corner of the galaxy again."

Cara giggled.

"Fair enough," Jack waved dismissively, "Till we meet again then?" Jack saluted them and strode off, glancing backward one last time to see the two walking back to the TARDIS. He stopped and watched as they went inside and the blue box faded away. Shaking his head, Jack returned to Torchwood.

Inside the TARDIS, Cara and the Doctor stood around the console, working the controls to reenter the time vortex.

"Where to, now?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know," Cara giggled thoughtfully, "Surprise me."

"What about Earth, 1960s?"

The two grinned at each other as the TARDIS hurtled through the vortex, on to their next destination, and the next adventure.


End file.
